As usual, everybody was late. We were supposed to be having dinner at Zakoya for Pam's nth despidida. The problem with English majors was that we never respected time as much as other people. And so, what used to be a 7pm affair became a late night dinner. Pam arrived at Koffee Kat at around 7:20 PM or so she claimed. I arrived a wee bit later.
We were only going to be four this evening: Pam, I, Karlo and Clarife. The rest of the group were out-of-town. Faith was in Tagum to visit the king. Mel was in Cebu, eating Lucky Me instant noodles, and Alex was in Manila, writing off fantasy stories for a TV network.
As Pam had elaborated, she was off to Singapore to work for a casino. She was pirated by another company and will be under contract for 2 years. Deep inside, I'm really happy for her. It's a start on to a good and better life and she pretty much deserves it.
She also shared her current "worries", her incoming medical exam and the fact that, sooner or later, Filipinos like her would be expendable as the locals start learning the details of their jobs. If you know Pam, she always had this habit of bringing up the dark side, the possible "potholes", of her blessings, whether she was coaxed into blurting it or not. That's vintage Pam for you. But, as always, she turns up okay.
Zakoya was a good place to dine and converse. It wasn't that crowded (so no need to rush things) and I was pretty much stuffed with delicious food (to digress, Clarife was the third person to join us then). A lot of talk centered, as always, around people who weren't there: Was Karlo meeting anyone in particular? Was Kuya Dom meeting someone else too? Where in the world is Cieng? How was everyone else?
Karlo joined us later and, after dinner, we were off to Kasagingan to continue the conversation. Kuya Dom, true to his word, joined us there and gave us the most pleasant surprise of the evening: he was accompanied by Ms. Emily Lim, a Chinese businessperson and was, as we guessed correctly, a very special friend. She offered a lot of sage advice, especially about cakes (her business), jewelry and about pawnshop wares. She and Dom were already going steady for 3 months now and I could tell you they both looked good together (in fact, they already look alike, come to think of it).
At around 12 midnight, I had to leave the group. Pam, Karlo, and Clarife were going to Metro but I had to leave then since I still had to run later that morning.
That was a memorable dinner. As Clarife had said, we ought to have dinners like this every once in a month. Now, that's a proposal worth considering.
We were only going to be four this evening: Pam, I, Karlo and Clarife. The rest of the group were out-of-town. Faith was in Tagum to visit the king. Mel was in Cebu, eating Lucky Me instant noodles, and Alex was in Manila, writing off fantasy stories for a TV network.
As Pam had elaborated, she was off to Singapore to work for a casino. She was pirated by another company and will be under contract for 2 years. Deep inside, I'm really happy for her. It's a start on to a good and better life and she pretty much deserves it.
She also shared her current "worries", her incoming medical exam and the fact that, sooner or later, Filipinos like her would be expendable as the locals start learning the details of their jobs. If you know Pam, she always had this habit of bringing up the dark side, the possible "potholes", of her blessings, whether she was coaxed into blurting it or not. That's vintage Pam for you. But, as always, she turns up okay.
Zakoya was a good place to dine and converse. It wasn't that crowded (so no need to rush things) and I was pretty much stuffed with delicious food (to digress, Clarife was the third person to join us then). A lot of talk centered, as always, around people who weren't there: Was Karlo meeting anyone in particular? Was Kuya Dom meeting someone else too? Where in the world is Cieng? How was everyone else?
Karlo joined us later and, after dinner, we were off to Kasagingan to continue the conversation. Kuya Dom, true to his word, joined us there and gave us the most pleasant surprise of the evening: he was accompanied by Ms. Emily Lim, a Chinese businessperson and was, as we guessed correctly, a very special friend. She offered a lot of sage advice, especially about cakes (her business), jewelry and about pawnshop wares. She and Dom were already going steady for 3 months now and I could tell you they both looked good together (in fact, they already look alike, come to think of it).
At around 12 midnight, I had to leave the group. Pam, Karlo, and Clarife were going to Metro but I had to leave then since I still had to run later that morning.
That was a memorable dinner. As Clarife had said, we ought to have dinners like this every once in a month. Now, that's a proposal worth considering.
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